Hadj-Moussa 265appearance of mini-cable networks allowed the population to access satel-
lite channels and defy existing laws. A number of political factors, notably
a favorable conjugation of forces for “democratic openness,” have con-
tributed to a laissez-faire approach that has proven beneficial for viewers.
Even though the three countries that make up the Maghrib offer a very
good common site to understand the political stakes generated by the
advent of satellite television, in this chapter I will concentrate exclusively
on the Algerian experience. This example shows how a new medium has
become the crystallization point around which political and normative
orientations of Algerian society cohere. Paradoxically, the country’s civil
war has made the struggle among stakeholders more visible. Although the
civil war has not simplified the political processes in play, it has certainly
rendered them more apparent.
n Algeria, de facto access to satellite television was first orches-I
trated in the mid-1980s by the military nomenclatura, who developed the
commercial complex Ryad el Feth in a neighborhood of eastern Algiers.
The development enshrined the history of the Algerian revolution, most
notably with the Moudjahid [Fighter] Museum and the Maqam al-Shahid,
or Monument to the Martyrs, created in 1984. Because this development
took place during the move toward regime liberalization, begun under
President Chadli (1979–1992), satellite dishes were introduced along with
the commercial complex, which although intended to cater to the well-
off, was adjacent to a lower-class neighborhood. Satellite dishes were later
adopted by the middle class located in towns and in semi-rural regions.
The prohibitive prices of the first “parabolas,” as Algerians call the satel-
lite dishes, created a new phenomenon, whereby interested parties collec-
tively financed the installation of the devices. Although by the end of the
1990s satellite dishes were increasingly purchased on an individual basis,
the collective viewing was an important one that needs to be documented.
Indeed, there were a significant number of “subscribers,” and collective
ownership and management of dishes was seminal and massive.
et us pause and contend that the recourse to history is not suf-L
ficient to identify the ways in which political regimes reacted to or used
satellite television. Instead we should consider this in anthropological
terms, to focus on what constitutes meaning for those involved—meaning
that makes Algerian satellite TV viewers receptive and helps them to see